


Herding Cats Myth Has Been Busted!

by Akinasky



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Derek is a Good Boyfriend, Established Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Established Relationship, M/M, Magic Gone Wrong, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Magical training, Mention of Deaton - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 14:38:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17727086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akinasky/pseuds/Akinasky
Summary: Stiles makes a thousand cats in his living room.





	Herding Cats Myth Has Been Busted!

**Author's Note:**

> This is my humorous addition to the January Challenge, its "herding cats" as the group admin.

Stiles looked around the room, trying to stop himself from hyperventilating as he fumbled with his phone. “Oh. Fuck Fuck fuck! What the hell happened? Who does this always happen to me?”

He dialed Deaton and held the phone to his ear as one of the creatures winding around his ankle started making noise and then all the others started to join in.

“Hello, this is Dr. Alan Deaton, please leave a message.”

“Fuck!” Stiles cursed just before the beep and he took another breath, “Ummmmm so Dr. Deaton I don’t know what happened but now there is about a million cats in my house and how the hell am I supposed to get rid of them? My dad is coming home after his shift and why the hell is this my life?”

He hung up the phone and looked around as several of the cats started hissing and spitting at each other.

“No, don’t do that!” Stiles stumbled around and through the swarms and tried to grab the pissed off cats, it spun around quicker than a werewolf and swiped its claws catching Stiles in the arm. Stiles pulled his hand back while the bright red of blood bloomed from the three cuts. Stiles shook off the pain and used his feet to push them away from each other but the little dark tabby cat just jumped over his ankle and landed in a rolling, growling heap with the other cat.

Like a dam bursting, the first fight set off a chain reaction of fights. Stiles stumbled back as s teeth clamped down on his ankle and he landed on his ass. He immediately started pushing himself away from the clowder of cats and hit the little green phone and hoped someone on the other end picked up and could help.

“Stiles?” Derek asked after he answered and Stiles looked down at the phone. Apparently, he called Derek. He wasn’t really surprised after the fact since Derek is the person he trusted more than anyone else, including Scott. The dynamic had changed since Derek and he started dating but this was just going to be a joke to him for the coming weeks.

“Derek, I did a thing and now there is a hundred million cats in my house!”

“You did a thing?” Derek asked with a freaking smirk in his voice, Stiles knew it.

“Yeah, I need someone to help me, please?” his voice broke a little on the end and thankfully Derek didn’t mention it.

“I’m on my way Stiles, just give me about fifteen minutes.”

He was there in twelve, coming in through the window of Stiles’s bedroom and tromping down the stairs. Stiles was sitting on the kitchen table, with at least three cats circling him. He didn’t want to but Stiles was imagining they were waiting for him to keel over so they could eat him.

At the sight of Derek, several hissing matches broke out again and others started meowing and heading for the stairs. Derek just kept walking over to the table where Stiles was and tugged him into a quick hug, then wrinkled his nose.

“Wow that is definitely the smell of a lot of cats, though I am pretty sure there isn’t a hundred million of them.”

Stiles rolled his eyes, “How am I supposed to get rid of them!”

“Well where did they come from?” Derek asked, sounding calm. _Stupid werewolf!_ Stiles turned to look around and caught sight of the red hard bound book that was still spitting out cats, one after another. He pointed towards the book and Derek patted Stiles on the shoulder in comfort before walking over and lifting the book and ended up launching an exiting cat into the room before he closed the book. He walked back over to Stiles, trying desperately not to trip over the felines who apparently have decided that Derek is the bees-knees and were trying to weave in and out of his legs as he moved.

“There were coming out of the book! I couldn’t make it stop!” Stiles exclaimed, waving his hand around until one of the fuzzy buggers leapt at him and he had to dodge or get scratched again. Derek put the book down in the edge of the table and shoved one of the cats away who turned and bit him. Derek snarled at the cats in the vicinity and they scuttled backwards. Derek turned back to Stiles.

“Why did they start coming out in the first place?” he asked.

Stiles groaned, “I opened the book and started reading, it just happened. I didn’t do a spell or anything. I swear.”

Derek picked the book up again and handed it over, “Show me.”

Stiles shook his head, crossing his arms so Derek couldn’t hand him the book.

“Stiles,” Derek said, his voice firm but kind, “Show me what happened.”

He shook his head again and pushed away from Derek who just moved to sit next to him in the table and started opening the book himself. Stiles reached over and slammed his palm down on the cover so Derek would have to stop. He was strong enough to push him off and open the book anyway but Derek had respected Stiles for a long time now, he didn’t think that was going to change because he brought forth a swarm of cats.

Derek moved a hand to cover his, “Stiles I believe in you.”

“You can’t herd cats, ya-know, there was a Myth Busters episode about it.”

Derek smiled, “You don’t have to herd them, you just have to put them back where they belong.”

Stiles snorted, “Well that’s a fine how-do-you-do but it doesn’t mean anything. Hallmark wants their greeting back now.”

Derek rolled his eyes, shoved Stiles’s hand off the book and opened it. Stiles squeaked in a very manly-type way and scrunched his eyes shut and covered his face, waiting for more cats to come out of the book. After a moment of relative chaos from the already existing cats and no new ones, Stiles peaked over his hands and noticed that Derek was reading something. In the book. The same book that wasn’t expelling cats anymore. Stiles dropped his hands and hummed in confusion.

“What is it?”

“I think it’s just because of your Druid nature, the book gave you a replicating problem to handle. It seems like this book is a testing ground for people like yourself to work through issues and figure out solutions.”

“Why cats?” Stiles demanded, moving to look over Derek’s shoulder but not touching the book, scared that him touching it would reopen the whatever and more cats would start pouring out.

Derek kept reading for a second, “I think that was your choice, like some sort of subconscious choice. You’re the only one who can keep them in the book or get rid of them though.”

Stiles looked around at the cats that were still prowling around the floor and jumping onto any surface they could find. “How?”

Derek reached out and pressed the book into Stiles’s hands and pressed a kiss to his cheek, “Close you eyes and imagine a place for them. It can’t be in this world or this place. You can’t make them do anything here but you can make them return to where they came from.”

Stiles took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trusting Derek more than he trusted himself. If Derek said that he could do this then he would do this. Derek was the one who led him onto the path of working with Deaton as a druid, possibly thinking of joining as an Emissary one day.

If Derek said he could send the cats back then Stiles wasn’t going to make a liar out of him. He would rather chop off his own hand than disappoint Derek. He took another deep breath and there was a slight pop in the air and he hummed, “What was that?”

“You’re doing fine! You got this Stiles.”

He imagined a place, maybe a house with cat beds strewn throughout the place and litterboxes everywhere. He thought of all the ways to make a cat sanctuary, imagining every single aspect of it as the warm well of power in his chest grew and dribbled out into the house. He didn’t see what it was doing, just kept thinking about the wonderous place he’d created from the cats and if they would just go there, then he would be happy and they would be happy and his dad would be happy that there weren’t a billion cats to take care of.

“There you go, Stiles you are so amazing. I love watching you like this,” Derek whispered close to his ear and Stiles shivered. He was never going to get used to being a person that Derek enjoyed, in spite of all his idiosyncrasies. He shook off the slight desire to become distracted by Derek’s closeness and words and continued thinking about the cats until there was a warmth coming from the book and he opened his eyes to look down. There was a picture, a brand new page that wasn’t in the book before. It was an image of the cat house he’d created in his mind and he could see all the cats moving in the picture and looked near the top and it stated: _Stilinski’s House of Cats_ and laughed.

“What the hell?”

“It seems like you did it,” Derek said, nudging Stiles’s shoulder and they looked around the house to find no cats roaming, there wasn’t any leftover poop or pee either and it didn’t smell like cats anymore, thankfully because he had no idea how he was going to explain that to his father.

Stiles hopped down from the table and closed the book before dropping it on the surface, looking around and listening intently. “I did it! I can’t believe it!” he exclaimed.

Derek walked over to him and pulled him close for a hug and pressed a kiss to his temple, “Of course you did. You are amazing.”

Stiles stole a quick kiss before he walked all around the house, making sure he got them all before he slumped into one of the chairs at the kitchen table, “I don’t understand why cats.”

“It seemed like you needed the challenge and everyone knows that you can’t herd cats.”

“Are you saying that anything else wouldn’t have been a challenge for me?” Stiles asked, wondering if he was supposed to be offended or not.

Derek rolled his eyes, “No one can herd you either Stiles, maybe it was just like calling like.”

Stiles chuckled, swinging out to punch Derek in the shoulder before he snuggled closer to his big bad wolf of a boyfriend and figured he was one lucky Druid to have Derek’s support during his training.

They sat still together for a few moments then heard a very quiet ‘meow’ and frowned to each other. Stiles scrambled to his feet and up the stairs to his bedroom with Derek on his heels, throwing open the bedroom door to find a small white kitten with darker cream spots in a pattern down its back. Stiles looked at Derek and then back at the cat, “They didn’t all go back?”

“Maybe he’s supposed to be here,” Derek responded, moving towards the cat and letting the little creature sniff Derek’s hand. The kitten started purring and Stiles walked over to sit down on the bed next to it. The creature immediately curled into Stiles’s lap and he smiled. There was a spark in his heart, his power reaching out and touching the kitten and suddenly Stiles wondering if he was a part of the training, something that Stiles would need in the coming days.

“Maybe he can stay, just one…”

Derek smiled and patted the kitten and Stiles continued to pet the kitten, wondering how the hell he was going to convince his dad he needed to keep a kitten that magically appeared in their house.

Then again, it wasn’t a billion kittens so maybe this was better. He didn’t have to be alone, in the good times or the bad, Stiles could have something familiar close by.


End file.
